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Longmont man's court hearing delayed over federal lawsuit he filed against his public defender

The suit was dismissed, but judge allowed attorney to withdraw

By Pierrette J. Shields Longmont Times-Call

Posted:
04/02/2013 06:02:31 PM MDT

Updated:
04/03/2013 12:53:21 PM MDT

Kyle Brooks

BOULDER -- A Longmont man's handwritten -- and swiftly dismissed -- federal lawsuit against his public defender served to stall a hearing Tuesday in Boulder District Court that ultimately could mean a 24-year prison term for the 22-year-old.

Kyle Brooks was convicted in February of misdemeanor domestic violence assault on his pregnant girlfriend, resisting arrest, two counts of misdemeanor assault on police officers, and two felony counts of tampering with a witness.

Brooks appeared in court Tuesday for a habitual offender hearing, during which prosecutors would seek to prove he has been convicted of multiple felonies over the course of different criminal episodes. If he is found in Boulder District Court to be a habitual offender, a sentence enhancer, he would be sentenced to 24 years in prison. However, he told Boulder District Judge Roxanne Bailin that he had filed a suit in U.S. District Court against his defense attorney, Nancy Salomone, for ineffective counsel and that the case was pending, so he did not want her to represent him for the hearing. In fact, the case had been dismissed March 18 without Salomone being served with notice of the lawsuit.

All the same, she said, she wanted to withdraw from the case.

"We are, at this point, in an adversarial posture," she said.

Both Bailin and prosecutors suggested that Brooks filed the lawsuit to delay his habitual criminal hearing, sentencing and move from the Boulder County Jail to a state prison.

"We're wondering how we can find Mr. Brooks an attorney that he is not going to again sue and again stall this process," prosecutor Fred Johnson said.

Brooks said he did not know his federal case had been dismissed because he was being disciplined at the jail and did not have access to his mail or legal paperwork. He added that he did not want to represent himself. He said he wanted a new court-appointed attorney.

Bailin allowed Salomone to withdraw and assigned an alternative defense counsel attorney to represent him at the hearing, which was rescheduled for April 30. Sentencing will be scheduled after the habitual offender hearing.

Brooks' adult criminal history has repeatedly made local headlines, including his recent trial convictions.

According to prosecutors, Brooks -- angry that his girlfriend got pregnant by another man while they were separated -- strangled her, pinned her to a bed and pressed his knee into her abdomen on Nov. 15, 2011, demanding that she abort. He fought with officers later in the day at the Boulder County Courthouse in Longmont, where police met him to arrest him on suspicion of the earlier assault. During the fight with officers, police reported, Brooks tried to take one officer's gun, grabbed a Taser that had fallen on the ground and tried to shoot an officer with it. The Taser did not deploy.

At trial, recordings of Brooks attempting to get his girlfriend to say she lied about the assault were played in court. Ultimately, she testified that she lied, but did not sway the jury.

Brooks' arrest for the assault came shortly after he was the center of a widely publicized search after he and a teenage girlfriend -- not the same girl assaulted over the pregnancy -- disappeared from Longmont. The couple were found in Boulder, and Brooks was charged with and pleaded guilty to contributing the delinquency of a minor.

The girl's mother led a public search effort in which she noted that Brooks, at 20, was already a convicted felon.

In 2010, he had been found guilty of felony theft in a Boulder purse snatching case, and felony first-degree criminal trespassing in another case. In 2011 he was convicted in another first-degree criminal trespassing case.

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